Former USC assistant coach Todd McNair testifies he received more than $60,000 from Reggie Bush following NCAA scandal

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Former USC running back Reggie Bush is consoled by former USC running backs coach Todd McNair after their 41-38 loss to Texas in the national championship game on Jan. 4, 2006 at the Rose Bowl. Bush helped McNair financially after he left for the NFL, McNair testified on Friday. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

LOS ANGELES — Former USC running backs coach Todd McNair testified Friday in his defamation lawsuit against the NCAA that he received $61,500 from Reggie Bush while out of coaching between 2010 and 2015.

The payments were brought up during a continued cross-examination led by NCAA attorney Kosta Stojilkovic.

It was the second of McNair’s two days on the witness stand in the ongoing trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, which will continue through at least next week with other testimony.

On a video screen in a corner of a courtroom, Stojilkovic displayed a series of five checks, written from Bush to McNair, that ranged from $2,500 to $25,000. The first check was for the largest sum and issued in November 2010, five months after McNair was penalized by the NCAA as part of the sanctions against USC’s football program for improper benefits Bush, the Trojans’ star tailback and one-time Heisman Trophy winner, had received from an aspiring sports agent.

The NCAA imposed a one-year show cause penalty against McNair in 2010 for unethical conduct after it determined McNair “knew or should have known” about Bush accepting extra benefits.

Stojilkovic initially classified the checks as loans, but McNair said he was not expected to repay Bush.

“That was him just helping you out?” Stojilkovic said.

“Yes,” McNair said.

McNair, 53, has not coached in college or the NFL since USC declined to renew his two-year contract in June 2010, expiring 20 days after the NCAA infractions committee’s report was made public. He testified Thursday that assistant coaching opportunities had failed to materialize in recent years as a result of the NCAA penalty. McNair coached at Pasadena High last year and will at Village Christian this fall.

While holding a variety of odd jobs, McNair has also received several loans from family members, as well as $240,000 from USC in 2011 as part of a settlement agreement.

During the cross-examination Friday, Stojilkovic at times focused on McNair’s relationship with Bush, asking if he had forged a closer bond with Bush than with the other running backs and fullbacks at USC.

Stojilkovic added that Bush was the only former Trojans player to provide McNair with financial assistance since he left the school in the aftermath of the scandal.

“Nobody made in the same stratosphere what Reggie made,” McNair said of Bush, who played 11 seasons in the NFL before retiring last year.

McNair admitted he was closer to Bush, but maintained he was unaware of the extra benefits Bush received from aspiring sports agent Lloyd Lake before news reports in 2006 made them public. By then, Bush had left USC for the NFL, where he was selected with the second overall pick in the draft that year.

Stojilkovic, the NCAA attorney, highlighted several of the extra benefits Bush and his family had accepted from Lake as part of his effort to entice the tailback to sign with his sports agency.

The focus was on Bush’s modified 1996 Chevrolet Impala, which he drove around campus, and why it didn’t raise concerns for McNair.

“If he pulled up in a Mercedes, I would have said something,” McNair said. He added, “That Impala was trash.”

The two-day-long testimony ended with a re-direct examination by Bruce Broillet, one of McNair’s attorneys.

It was the most animated McNair had been during nearly 10 hours on the witness stand, including an additional denial of meeting with Lake, the aspiring agent.

“Is there more at stake in this case for you than money?” Broillet said.

“It ain’t never been about money,” McNair responded, before raising his voice. “Nobody is ever going to make me know Lloyd Lake. I don’t care how many trials, hearings, it’s never going to change. I didn’t ever know Lloyd Lake.”

Joey Kaufman is the USC beat writer for the Southern California News Group. Since joining the Orange County Register in 2015, he has also covered Major League Baseball and UCLA athletics. His work has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors and Football Writers Association of America. Kaufman grew up in beautiful downtown Burbank.

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